Quotes of the day

“People are seeing through exactly what’s going on, and they’re getting fired up,” Carson said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” explaining the $3.5 million his campaign raised last week. “It’s almost an us versus them thing.”

“Every place I go, you know, I go to a book signing, there’s a thousand people in line [who say] ‘please don’t let them get to you.’ ‘Don’t give up.’ ‘We got your back.’ ‘We know what’s going on.’ ‘We believe you,’” he said.

The performance, at a news conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., was mesmerizing at times, in part because of the serious personal questions that have been raised: whether he embellished or even made up crucial episodes in his life story, like the attempted stabbing of a childhood friend and his claim that West Point had offered him a “full scholarship.”…

Pressed to disclose the name of the friend he tried to stab in ninth grade, he surveyed the room like a schoolteacher, asking reporters whether, once armed with the person’s identity, they would sign an affidavit pledging to leave Mr. Carson alone.

“Will you do that? Yes? Yes? Yes? Yes?” he asked each of them. Laughter rose from the gaggle of reporters.

***

“I’m going to be asking people to use their logic and common sense. Would someone like myself be able to do the things that I have been done if I just had a milquetoast life?” Carson asked rhetorically. “I don’t think so,” he responded…

“I’m not by any stretch going to give up. Every place I go, you know, the public comes up to me and they say ‘Don’t you dare give up. Don’t let those people get to you. We love you. We believe you. We’ve got your back.’ That’s all I hear all day long when I’m in public,” Carson said…

“I look at some of the surgical cases that I’ve had that were thought to be impossible. In some of those cases the amount of stress and turmoil were, massively more than anything the media proposes. I remember two weeks ago when I went on The View and Joy Behar said are you frightened dealing with these little dilemmas. I said, ‘Are you kidding me? I know what real anxiety is, and this is not even close!’” Carson said, laughing.

***

When asked about whether he was ready for the intense scrutiny and vetting of a presidential campaign, Carson said he was but pushed back on whether what he is experiencing is fair.

“I have always said that I expect to be vetted, but being vetted and what is going on with me —’You said this thirty years ago, you said this 20 years ago, this didn’t exist’ — you know, I have not seen that with anyone else. If you can show me where that’s happened with someone else I will take that statement back,” he said.

The central point of the story is falsely described by Cheney/Politico as being that he applied and was accepted at West Point. Carson, in fact, has repeatedly claimed not to have applied. So any claim regarding the absence of West Point records of such an application would not debunk Carson’s point. And, again, Carson’s campaign never “conceded” the story was false at least in part because the story, as characterized by Politico, is not one he told. Further, Cheney is unable to substantiate his claim that Carson told this story. Nowhere in the article does he even explain, with facts, where he came up with the idea that Carson has ever made this claim.

Politico stealthily edited the inflammatory headline and lede, after the damage was done. They made changes without adding a note about what was corrected. They didn’t update the piece or add an editor’s note. The new headline is very much toned down to “Exclusive: Carson claimed West Point ‘scholarship’ but never applied.” This is a claim not exclusive to Politico and not newsworthy in the least. Carson himself broke this news 23 years ago when he said he was offered a scholarship to West Point but never applied. The cleaned-up story still says that Carson “conceded that he never applied nor was granted admission to West Point.” To concede is to admit that something is true. But, again, Carson himself made this claim more than two decades ago, so he’s not conceding the point to Kyle Cheney or Politico simply because Kyle Cheney and Politico misread him.

***

Mr. Carson, then a junior with a key to a biology lab where he worked part time, told The Wall Street Journal last month that he protected a few white students from the attacks by hiding them there.

Last month, Mr. Carson said in a radio interview that, as a young doctor, he had a gun stuck in his ribs at a Popeye’s restaurant in Baltimore near Johns Hopkins University. “A guy comes in and puts a gun in my ribs. And I just said, ‘I believe that you want the guy behind the counter,’” Mr. Carson said. “He said, ‘Oh, okay.’” The Baltimore Police Department later said it couldn’t find a report matching the incident Mr. Carson described.

In response to a question at a recent GOP presidential debate, Mr. Carson said he “didn’t have an involvement” with Mannatech Inc., a multilevel marketing company that sells nutritional supplements, and called any suggestion to the contrary “propaganda.” Mr. Carson, who has taken the company’s products, appeared in videos that could until recently be found on Mannatech’s website, including two filmed in 2013 and styled like commercials.

***

Now operatives believe that [Carson’s] reservoir of support is at risk.

“When your whole campaign is built around cult of personality and a portion of that message is proven not to be true, everything else becomes suspect,” said the senior Republican strategist.

His opponents cautiously predicted the stories would begin to sap some of Carson’s support. “I scratch my head as to how a guy who perpetually makes things up has any appeal as an outsider,” said a top aide to a fourth campaign. “People don’t trust our leaders in D.C. as it stands.”

***

Wellman’s critiques get to the crux of the problem I and many of my fellow veterans have with Carson and his “Brian Williams problem”. As a former soldier, I’m not particularly offended, just as I was never particularly offended by the NBC news anchor’s false claims of martial glory in Iraq. I don’t think Carson’s exaggeration devalues military service, and I don’t think he is claiming a service academy pedigree he doesn’t deserve.

I object because military service cemented integrity in my own values and Ben Carson is dishonest.

Carson’s opponent Jeb Bush, who is also running for the presidency, told FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto he trusts the renowned neurosurgeon over Politico.

“I believe him to be true, I’m not going to speculate this- I admire the guy a lot,” Bush said. “We can all be vetted. I feel like I’ve been thoroughly vetted, to be honest with you, and that’s part of the process of running for president, but it ought to be done in an intellectually honest way and a thoughtful way and if he says that he didn’t do something then I trust him, I believe him. If it’s between Politico and Ben Carson, put me under the Ben Carson column please.”

***

If anyone lied, it’s Politico, not Dr. Ben Carson.

More importantly, it’s of little to no consequence whether you believe that Carson should have been more precise or not. What does matter is the following: liberal hacks posing as journalists are trying to take down yet another solid African-American conservative.

In contrast to what liberals believe, minorities like African-Americans and Hispanics have every right to think for themselves and leave the Democrat plantation once they realize that liberals are playing them for fools. And we need to support them when they do, and when they’re targeted for destruction as Ben Carson clearly is.

***

His account, in fact, resonates with my own experience. Many years ago I was “offered” an ROTC scholarship before I even applied. After speaking with officers familiar with my academic record, they told me I would receive a full academic scholarship, and that the application was a mere formality. My teenage self certainly took their statements as an “offer,” and I wouldn’t have applied without their word. (I filled out the forms and was formally accepted, but declined in favor of a better scholarship elsewhere.)…

At the end of the day, what are we left with? An admirable though imperfect man who rose from abject poverty to the pinnacle of one of the most challenging professions in the nation — all while never forgetting his roots, maintaining grace and humility even as he earned riches and honors. In fact, his life story — and his character — would make him one of the most inspiring Americans ever to occupy the Oval Office. But he’s a direct threat not just to leftist narratives regarding race and class but also to the leftist stranglehold on the black vote. And for that reason alone he must be destroyed.